Charlotte Mann Beaumont Oates was born on 28th April 1856 at 10 Causeway, Halifax, daughter of Mary and Daniel Oates.
In 1865, the family moved to Horse Close Cottages, North Bierley.
She and her brother were self-educated with the help of Cassell's Popular Educator and other books. Her father taught her to play the piano.
Following in her mother's footsteps, she began to write poetry.
On 7th September 1877, on one of the family's trips to the coast, she wrote a poem entitled The Gallant Lifeboat Crew which was published in a Blackpool newspaper, The Blackpool Herald. This was followed by more verses in Blackpool newspapers.
She subsequently contributed to local papers including the Brighouse Gazette, the Cleckheaton Advertiser, and the Cleckheaton Guardian, and the Blackpool Gazette, the Bradford Times, the Illustrated Weekly Telegraph of Bradford, and the Observer Budget of Bradford, and others.
In 1897/1898, she prepared a volume of 256 poems which was published by J. S. Toothill of Bradford. This was well-received at home and overseas.
Queen Victoria acknowledged 2 of Charlotte's poems: an elegy on the death of Princess Alice in 1879, and an ode on the Queen's Jubilee in 1887.
Her last poem entitled The Transvaal War won the 1899 Christmas competition in the Cleckheaton Guardian.
In spring 1898, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In August, she underwent an operation at Bradford Royal Infirmary for removal of the tumour. This affected her right arm. She went to Blackpool to convalesce, but the cancer spread to her lungs. The doctor diagnosed her case as hopeless and she died on Good Friday, 13th April 1900.
She was buried at Halifax Parish Church on Easter Monday, 16th April 1900.
After her death, a great many poetic tributes to Charlotte from around the world appeared in the Cleckheaton Guardian.
In June 1900, her brother, Arthur, published a second 450-page volume of poetry entitled Miscellaneous Poems, Songs & Rhymes with a biography
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